Adhesive Properties of Bacteria

The concept of microbial attachment has recently stimulated extensive research concerning the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Bacterial attachment to mucosal cells, obviously, is an important step in the infectious process and may be considered to be a prerequisite for the colonization of host tissues. ^{1 - 3} Recently, much evidence has been accumulated showing that the specificity of attachment appears to be the major factor that accounts for the organophilic tropism of a variety of microorganisms. ^{4 , 5}